


Third Wheeling

by ThatCatLover



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Dating, F/M, Highschool AU, I Love You, Leo my baby, Mortal AU, Third Wheels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 07:02:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14764871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatCatLover/pseuds/ThatCatLover
Summary: Piper is sick and tired of Leo tagging along on her dates with Jason. So, she gets him a girlfriend.I would date Leo Valdez in a heartbeat, I've fallen hard for him.





	Third Wheeling

Piper was at her wit's end.

Leo Valdez had gone on ANOTHER ONE of her dates with Jason. Another date where it was completely awkward and embarrassing and uncomfortable.

It wasn’t that Piper disliked Leo, far from that, actually. She loved the guy, but as a brother. A brother who couldn’t take a hint and who Piper just didn’t have the heart to tell to beat it. So she let him on every single one of their dates, endured every joke, every interruption of a romantic moment, went through it all, just because she couldn’t say no to stupid Leo Valdez.

“We have to do something,” Piper said after Leo joined in on their date for the 12th time. She and Jason were hanging out in Jason’s room at his house, currently, the only place where they could be alone, and even then, Jason’s older sister, Thalia, had them keep the door open all the time and would sometimes pop into their conversations.

“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “But what can we do? He’ll be crushed if we don’t include him.”

Piper thought for a moment. Wait, crush? That gave her an idea. She snapped her fingers,

“I’ve got it! Leo needs a girlfriend!” She exclaimed. Silence from Jason. She had to admit, it sounded pretty stupid out loud. Leo… wasn’t exactly, how to put this nicely, good with women. He was really a great, sweet guy but he was small and scrawny and his ADHD caused him to constantly fidget and tap his fingers on every surface, something that most people found annoying.

“Pipes, I love Leo, he’s one of my best friends and I couldn’t ask for a better one but-” Jason began but was cut off by Piper.

“But it’s not exactly realistic for him to immediately just get a girlfriend,” Piper finished “I know, but we have to try.”

“Alright, who do we know that’s single that we can set up with Leo?” Jason asked, somewhat exasperatedly.

“We could ask Annabeth,” Piper suggested. “I know that she had a list of girls that were once interested in Percy as a hit list.”

“I’m not even going to ask about that one,” Jason said nervously. “Alright, can you ask Annabeth to see the list and try to find someone for Leo?”

Piper nodded, already out the door, a woman on a mission.  
\--------  
Not even three hours later had Piper marched back into the Grace family house (“Well, come right in Piper,” Thalia had said sarcastically after Piper had let herself in unannounced with the key under the welcome mat.) let herself into Jason’s room and slammed a slip of paper onto Jason’s desk with a loud thump.

“Calypso Atlas,” Piper said, her multicolored eyes shining with accomplishment and determination.

“Who?” Jason asked.

“Calypso Atlas,” Piper repeated “She’s who we can set Leo up with. Annie told me all about her. This paper has her information on it.” She thrust the slip of paper into Jason’s hands triumphantly.

Jason looked the paper over and let out a low whistle. The thing was scarily full of information on the girl, though, that was to be expected from Annabeth Chase, who never lacked in researching. It had the girl’s address, phone number, school schedule, email, all social media accounts, a school picture and, scarily enough, blood type. (Christ, how had Annabeth gotten that?!) In fact, after looking at the picture, Jason realized that he had actually seen the girl before. She had fair skin, caramel-colored hair, and brown eyes. She was always alone in class but had a certain fire to her that Jason just knew Leo would like.

“I have to hand it to you, Pipes,” Jason said. “I was skeptical at first but I think this is actually a really good idea.” 

“But of course it is,” Piper said, smirking “I came up with it.” Jason laughed and pulled Piper close to him, her chin in his hands and their faces inches apart.

“Would you like to celebrate that good idea?” He asked. Piper responded but moving in closer, closer, closer, about to kiss and-

Buzzzzzzz! Jason phone beeped. The two groaned and the mood-kill and glanced at his phone. It was from Leo. What a shock. It wasn’t even a real text, he just sent Jason a meme. But at least it reminded them that they needed to convince Leo to go on a date. Piper picked up his phone, opened it (It was literally just her name with the numbers on the keypad) and typed out a response. Operation: Get Leo a Life was ago.  
\----------  
Miraculously, after nearly to weeks of chatting with Calypso in the hallway, dropping Leo’s name in conversation, and begging both Leo and Calypso, Piper had finally managed a double date on Friday night. 

Piper and Calypso had met Jason and Leo at a diner. Calypso seemed kind of nervous, shuffling her sandal-clad feet and twisting the hem of her white dress in her fingers. They sat down in a booth together and had light, awkward conversation. Leo didn’t appear to be very interested, he kept trying to build mini houses out of his napkin before Calypso spoke up.

“It’s not going to work if you keep building like that,” Calypso said. Piper froze, did she mean the date? Did she think Leo was being rude by not really paying attention? Oh, gods, she and Jason were never getting time alone, were they?!

But to Piper’s relief Calypso didn’t sound angry, she actually sounded kind of… amused? She was looking at the structure that Leo was trying to make.

“You keep trying to build it with the edge of the napkin on the table. It will never balance like that, the paper is too thin. Put the face of the paper down on the table and fold it upward. The that’s flat on the table will be the floor and what’s folded upward will be a wall,” she said. Leo followed her instructions and it turned out just as she said it would.

Leo grinned, “Thank you, you’re a genius.” Calypso giggled a bit and said “Not really. I’m a designer and a weaver, I’m used to working with thinner materials. You’re used to working with thicker, more sturdy materials, am I right?”

Leo smiled wider “Yeah, I love woodshop and robotics. Now that I think about it, you’re in the garden club, right? The school garden’s right outside the tech room, I think I’ve seen you out there.”

“Yeah! I love to garden, do you?” Calypso asked happily

“I know a little bit, my mom liked to garden a lot. Maybe you could teach me more and we could work together on a building project?” Leo asked.

Calypso giggled “Of course!” and Piper felt her heart soar. She looked at Jason and they matched expressions of mixtures of relief and pride. The group laughed together. However, when the laughter died down, calypso’s smile faded and she looked away. Trying to cover it up with a fake smile she said, “I’m sorry, I’m just going to quickly use the bathroom.” 

When she left, Leo turned to Piper and Jason and said, “I owe you two big time. Gods, she’s great!” The trio laughed and sat for a few minutes, but Calypso hadn’t come back. Five minutes later, still no return. Leo looked sad.

“I’ll go check on her,” Piper said, attempting to fix the situation “Maybe she’s having girl issues.” She walked into the bathroom, ready to be angry at this girl for ditching her friend and stopped when she found her on the floor crying slightly. 

“Woah, girl, are you okay?” Piper asked. Calypso looked up worriedly,

“Piper, I’m so sorry! You’ve been so nice to me, setting me up with such a great guy, but I can’t date him, I’m not sure I can date anyone right now!” She cried.

“Wait, what? But if you like him-?” Piper sputtered, Calypso cut her off.

“Look, I really like him, but I’ve already had my heart broken once by Percy and before that, my ex, Odysseus. I don’t want it to happen again.” Calypso cried.

Piper sighed “Leo won’t break your heart. He’s not that kind of person, and I’m not saying Percy is either, Percy is just oblivious and didn’t realize that you had feelings for him. But you’re going to experience a lot of heartbreak in your life, sister, whether you like it or not, so take a chance with Leo, please, because he was telling us outside while you were camped out in here that he’s enjoying this and that he likes you!”

“He does?” Calypso asked, wiping her eyes.

“Yes,” Piper said, exasperated. “A lot, so come back outside and see him.” Calypso wiped away the last of her tears and nodded marching out the door with Piper at her heels. 

Upon reaching the table, Leo took into account his dates face. Piper saw has his expression go from happiness at seeing Calypso again, to confusion at seeing her red nose and puffy eyes to concern as he realized by she looked that way.

“Were you crying, Sunshine?” He asked. Calypso sniffled and asked “Sunshine?”

Leo scratched the back of his neck sheepishly “Yeah, it just seemed right. But don’t dodge the question.”

Calypso sighed “Yeah, I was but I’m fine now.” Leo and Calypso’s eyes met and, from what Piper could see, a form of understanding passed between the two of them.

“Hey, Beauty Queen, why don’t you take my spot next to Superman here and Callie and I will share a booth.” Piper gladly made the switch, sliding in next to her boyfriend, taking his hand and watching as Leo put his arm around Calypso’s shoulders and lead her into the booth.

“I guess there’s only one thing to do now,” Leo spoke to Calypso. “Because you were crying I’m making it my job to cheer you up!” Leo started telling jokes and funny stories, speaking for the rest of the date, letting Calypso laugh and laugh until her arms were wrapped around her midsection, she was gasping for air and begging Leo to stop because she couldn’t breathe. 

Pleased, Piper let herself relax into Jason, watching her friends fall in love.  
\-----------  
On Monday, when Leo and Calypso walked into school hand in hand, Piper couldn’t help but feel happy not just that she could finally be free from her third wheel on her relationship, but that Leo was finally in a relationship of his own.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so tired, it's 11:30 where I am buuttttt
> 
> It's my b-day yay!
> 
> Please tell me what you thought of this and I'm making a Solangelo highschool AU of school plays and tech crew


End file.
